Railway crossing with center supports



May 12, 1925.

w. T. MCNINQH RAILWAY CROSSING WITH CENTER SUPPORTS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 y K Jw@ Filed May 28, 1924 www@ , L53Z245' w. T. McNlNcH RAILWAY CROSSING WITH CENTER SUPPORTS Filed May 2s, 1924 2 sheets-sheet 2 Patented May 12, *1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

TVII.I'.'.Il'.rIAllltIIy T, MONINCH, OF CHICAGO HEIGHTS, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO AMERICAN Y'.MANGAN ESE STEEL COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF MAINE.

RAILWAY CROSSING WITH CENTER SUPPORTS.

Apputauon mea may as,

To all 'whom t may concern.' Be it known that I, WILLIAM T. Mc- NINGH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago Heights, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful'Improvements in Railway Crossings with Center Supports, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to cast railway crossings, and particularly to crossings of that type in which the centerportion of the cast body, where the tracks intersect, is afforded vertical support substantially throughout its area by the provision of vertically extending supporting walls separated by intervening spaces which reduce the transverse dimensions of the walls su'Hiciently to leave them appropriate for heat treatment; the preferred embodiment of the invention being particularly advantageous in thattype of crossing in which the members formed with treads and langeways are Supported by spaced under anges or .webs which,a intersecting at points radially remote 26 from the crossing center, define by their intersections the sides of a polygonal support for the crossing.

The object of the present invention is to provide an improved design of supporting lo walls whereby all the advantages of substantially continuous support will be realized, together with the further advantages of providing a structuiJ that will be better adapted to withstand stresses incident to cooling as well as loads imposed in service, and also provide a construction that will permit a better distribution of metal in the mold, and consequently an improved structure in the finished product and fewer failures in the foundry.

The invention proceeds upon the principle of developing a plurality of vertical sustaining walls beneath the intersecting members of the crossing, as by providing a t5 substantially cylindrical wall surrounding center portion of the casting radially nearer to the center of the crossing than the polygonal supporting wall, afforded by the intersecting base flanges or webs; or by proso viding a plurality of such supporting walls formed upon substantially continuously 1924. Serial N'o. 716,337.

curved lines, for instance, in the form of a series of concentric circles, together with walls radial to the center of such circles or substantially radial to the arcs of the walls at points where they join the same for the dual purpose of permitting the metal to rapidly reach all points of the mold at the time of casting, and strengthening the walls against lateral stresses; the radial walls in the respective concentric spaces between the curved walls being preferably offset in the circumferential direction so that a radial wall in one space will be received and resisted by the arcuate inner wall of that space at a point between its own sustaining radial walls, and thereby increase the resiliency of the casting and improve its capacity to resist shocks.

In thel accompanying drawings, in which the preferred embodiment of the invention is shown by way of illustration- Figure l is a top plan view of a cast railway crossing of the type in which it is desirable to use the present invention.

Figure 2 is a section on the line 2 -2x of Figures l and 3, showing features of the present invention.

Figure 3 is a section on the line 3"--3x of Figure 2, showing the general arrangement of supporting walls; and Figure 4 is a section on the line lx- 4x of Figure 1.

1 represents the center portion of a railway crossing which is usually formed with stub portions 2 2 and 3 3. 4 represents intersecting iangeways formed in the crossing, 5 the tread* portions of the crossing, and 6 the guard portions thereof. 7 represents base flanges by which the crossing is supported upon its ties or other foundation.

Owing to the difficulty in insuring the integrity of vcast railway crossings, with deep flangeway grooves, under the shocks which such crossings encounter in use, the practice has been established of supporting the middle portion of the casting by numerous vertical walls distributed throughout its whole under area, the ideal condition to be approached being a substantially solid mass of metal in such location, except for spaces necessary to lighten the structure and to expose the supporting mass for proper heat treatment. The present invention meets this requirement by providing aJ series of Walls of substantially continuously curved form, such, for instance, as shown at 8, `9, and 10 in Figure 3, where the said walls and their adjacent spaces 8a,9a, and 10a are circular and concentric with the center of the crossing member; and having these `curved walls connected by transverse strut walls 11 and 12, which, in the particular design selected for illustration, are radial to said center, and the strut walls located in one wall space are circumferentially oii'set from those located in the other wall space, so that they connect arched portions of the walls and develop a more resilient structure, besides providing for better distribution of metal in the cast. The outermost curved wall 10 merges at 13 with the vertical webs 14 of the stub portions 2, 3, of the casting, and thus resists, through means of an arched formation, any inward radial thrust transmitted from the outer portions of the casting as a result of iexure of the casting on a diametric line, for instance, such as the line 2* of Figure 3.

The vertical supporting walls 8, 9, and 10 will have a vertical dimension that brings their lower faces into the plane of the supporting langes 7, and it will be the purpose to so support the crossing as to receive loads crossing the center directly upon the. foundation rather than upon a structure which constitues a bridge between supports beneath the stub portions.

.In casting a member designed substantially as herein described, gates for molten metal will be distributed at suitable points with respect to the design of the casting, and risers will also be placed suitably to insure uniformY density of the casting; and the intersections of curved and radial walls, as well as of the curved wall 10 with the vertical webs 14, have proven to be vantage points for location of these details in foundry operation.

I claim:

1. A railway crossing. comprising intersecting members formed with treads and iiangeways, and each with a pair of vertil cal supporting webs which intersect one another at points radially remote from the point of intersection of the flangeways of the members, and by their said intersections, deiining the walls of a polygonal support for the crossing, and a substantially cont-inuous vertical sup orting wall surrounding the point of angeway intersection, but radially within and spaced froml the walls of said polygonal support.

2. A railway crossing having beneath y the central portion thereof vertical supporting walls of substantially continuously curving form; there being a plurality of said walls, one surrounding another at different distances from the center of the crossing.

3. A railway crossin@ having beneath the central portion thereolfD vertical supporting walls of substantially continuously curving form; the portions of said walls lying beneath the iiangeways of the crossing being substantially transverse thereto; said crossing being constructed with stub portions having vertical webs, and the outermost curving wall merging with said webs where thewebs of two adjacent stub portions meet.

4. A railway crossin formed with intersecting langeways, an having beneath its central portion a plurality of substantially continuously curving supporting walls surrounding one another at different distances from the point of intersection of the fiangeways of the crossing.

5. A railway crossing formed with intersecting iiangeways, and having beneath its central portion a plurality of substantially continuously curving supporting walls surrounding one another at different distances from the point of intersection of the flange- Ways of the crossing; said crossing having stub portions constructed with vertical supporting webs; the portions of said curving walls which lie beneath the langeways of the crossing being substantially transverse to said langeways; and the outermost curing wall merging with said webs.

6. A railway crossing having beneath its central portion a series of substantially continuously curving supporting walls, one within another, and leaving spaces between them, and strut walls extending across the space between and integral with adjacent curving walls.

7. A railway crossing having beneath its central portion a series of substantially continuously curving supporting walls located one within another and leaving spaces between adjacent walls, and strut walls extending across the spaces between and integrally united with adjacent curved walls; the strut walls' in one space being circumferentially oil-'set with respect to the strut walls in another space whereby arching portions of walls are connected.

8. A railway crossing having beneath its central portion outer, inner, and intermediate vertical supporting walls, all of substantially continuous arcuate form, and with tie walls extending from the outer wall to the intermediate wall, and tie Walls extend- -ing from the intermediate wall to the inner wall; the tie walls last named being s aced from the tie walls first named in the irec.- tion of the arcuate walls which they connect.

9. A railway crossing having beneath its centrall portion a plurality of vertical strengthening walls of circular form, substantially concentric with but at increasing 4 distances from the point of intersection of the wheel-Ways of the crossing.

10. A railway crossing having beneath its central portion a pluralit of vertical strengthening Walls of circu ar form, sub- 

